This application claims the priority of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2005-0096196, filed on Oct. 12, 2005, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for processing a three-dimensional (3D) image, and more particularly, to an image processing apparatus and method for adjusting the disparity of an input 3D image and stably displaying the 3D image.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional three-dimensional (3D) displays display a 3D image by projecting images having different disparities to the left and right eyes of a user using a 2D flat display and tools such as a film-type micro-polarizer, a parallax barrier, and a lenticular lens. Such 3D displays may be classified into stereoscopic 3D displays and multiview 3D displays according to the number of views displayed thereon. Stereoscopic 3D displays display an image having two different views, and multiview 3D displays display an image having more than two views.
To produce a 3D image, a real image is filmed by a stereoscopic camera including two incident lenses or a multiview camera including a plurality of incident lenses. Alternatively, stereo or multiview image contents may be produced using computer graphics.
When a 3D image is produced using a 3D camera or when producing image contents using computer graphics, characteristics of human vision are taken into consideration. However, when a display environment is different from a production environment, for example, when a 3D image produced using a multiview camera is displayed on a stereoscopic 3D display or when displays of different sizes are used for producing and displaying a 3D image, conventional 3D displays cannot display a 3D image as intended.